Bleach Tokyo Ghoul AU
by purpleswans
Summary: A collection of on-shots about Bleach characters in the Tokyo Ghoul universe. Originally called "Karin's Hunt." Chapter 2: How Orihime found out.
1. Chapter 1: Karin's Hunt

**Hey all! I while back I was obsessing over Tokyo Ghoul while dealing with hitsukarin feels when I had a sudden thought: What about a Hitsukarin/Tokyo Ghoul AU? This ended up being the result.**

**I put a lot of thought into what parallels to use for this AU. At one point I considered the idea of having hollows be ghouls and Soul Reapers be the CCG, but I felt like that didn't really fit with one of the major themes of Tokyo Ghoul, that both sides have their good in bad parts. In Bleach we see both the good and the bad of the Soul Reapers, but generally Hollows are only seen as monsters. When looked at from the CCG's perspective that would be an accurate representation, but since Tokyo Ghoul fans sympathize with ghouls too much, it didn't really work. Instead I decided to make the Soul Reapers ghouls and the Quincy as the CCG, since with Uryu and this most recent arc in the Bleach manga the way they are viewed to readers is much more like the CCG is to the Tokyo Ghoul readers: full of a lot bad people, but with a few good ones thrown in and with understandable reasons to fight. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

* * *

It wasn't just Karin's own grumbling stomach that made her go hunting that day. It was also her sister's moans due to eating too much human food during school. But most of all, it was the sight of her brother who still hadn't healed from that stupid dove attack.

You see, Karin and everyone in her family were Ghouls. Well, her mother had been human so Karin, Yuzu, and Ichigo were technically half-human, but that wasn't the point. To the humans, half-ghouls were no different than normal Ghouls, since they had the same appetite. Karin and her family had to eat human meet to survive. And because of that, the CCG wanted them dead.

Usually Karin's family were able to stay off the doves' radar. Their mother had been a CCG investigator before she fell in love with their dad and "retired." She had taught them all the things they look for and how to act like a normal human in public. Their dad owned a small clinic to pay the bills and give them a reason to be around dead bodies.

But yesterday, while their dad was on a week-long business trip, her brother had seen one of his friends getting beat up by a couple of doves. Since Ichigo is an overprotective idiot, he decided to put on his own mask and try to save the guy. This lead to an all-out battle between the CCG and Ichigo and some of his friends. They were all able to get away eventually, but not without Ichigo sustaining major injuries from none other than the rising star of the CCG, Ishida Uryu.

Usually it wasn't hard for Ichigo to recover from his stupid fights. Dad would patch him up, he'd get a good meal, and he'd be up and about in a few hours. However, a good meal was crucial. A lot of Ghouls' healing abilities were dependent on whether or not they were hungry, including their fast healing. Karin's family usually got their food from the organs of people who'd died at the clinic (they had a deal with the coroner, another Ghoul, who would stuff the bodies to look like they were whole.) Sometimes, when there hadn't been that many people dying, their dad or Ichigo would go and get food from some other ghouls who got meat through other means (apparently they had a deal and sometimes Karin's family would give them meet if there were to many dead people at one time.)

However, with their dad out of town, their brother in no shape to move, and their fridge empty, the duty fell on Karin to get food. Unfortunately, Karin didn't know the people her dad and brother had a deal with and Ichigo couldn't tell her where to find them. Which meant that Karin would probably have to do it herself.

She would have to kill a person.

Karin swallowed nervously.

Whether it was because of Karin's unique family situation or her upbringing, she didn't have the same belief as other ghouls about humans. Conceptually, she knew that the meat she ate was the same as her mother and the humans she went to school with, but she didn't see humans as simply food. The idea of killing a person was... difficult.

But for her family, she would do whatever she had to.

Karin peaked out of the dark alley she was hiding in. She tried to think of ways to get in a position where she could kill a person easily. She knew that a lot of ghouls hung out in secluded areas and jumped whoever was stupid enough to go there at night, but Karin didn't what places were good for that and she definitely didn't want to get in a fight with other ghouls over food. On top of that, Karin didn't have a mask, so she would have to be extra careful. If doves saw her face, she was eternally screwed.

The best option Karin could think of was to lure someone away alone and do the deed then. She could go up to a guy, give them some kind of sob story, and ask them to walk her home. Then, when they were alone...

God, that was so manipulative. Karin wasn't that type of girl. Still, if that was what she had to do, then she had no other choice.

Karin walked out of her hiding place and strolled down a large, well-lit street. It was one of the only places still busy this time of night. There were a few crowds of people standing in front of various stores and restaurants, but most of the people were hurrying to their destination, most likely home. It would be difficult to find someone alone Karin could strike up a conversation with and lead to a secluded area.

"Can I help you?"

Karin almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of a voice right beside her ear. She turned to see who it belonged to.

He was a young teenager, probably about the same age as Karin. He wasn't wearing a school uniform, which was odd considering his age. His eyes were an unusual, teal color, and his hair was unnaturally white. He was short for a boy, but he seemed to have a decent amount of muscle on him, good, juicy meat...

Crap. Karin's hunger was starting to get to her. She really should find someone to lure away... But didn't this guy initiate a conversation with her? He was practically handing himself over to her.

Karin smiled.

"Actually, I think you can. I ended up spending more time shopping than I thought, and it got dark before I could get home. There have been a lot of Ghoul attacks in my area, so I don't want to travel alone..." Karin tried to look as pitiful and scared as possible.

God, Karin wouldn't be able to live with herself if this wasn't absolutely necessary.

"You want me to walk you home?" He asked.

Karin nodded.

"Couldn't you call a taxi?"

Shoot. He was picking holes in her story. "Well, you see..."

"Which direction is it? Your house, I mean."

Karin breathed a sigh of relief. She wouldn't have to come up with some kind of elaborate excuse. "It's this way," she explained as she pulled him down the nearest side street.

They walked together for a few minutes, during which Karin tried to think of where she could go to... finish it. She didn't want to wait too long, or she would lose her nerve. She led him through a few turns to get away from the view of the street. Just when was starting to think it was far enough, her companion and future victim spoke up.

"By the way, I don't think I ever got your name. I'm Toshiro Hitsugaya,"

Toshiro Hitsugaya. Karin committed that name to memory. She would make sure to thank him in her heart for the rest of her life. It was the least she could do.

Karin stopped suddenly with her back to him, realizing that she had come to a dead end. "Toshiro, huh," she sighed. "You really seem like a nice guy. I'm really sorry about this."

Karin released her Kagune. It was a Bikaku, just like the rest of her family. Karin didn't use it very often, but she was very proud of it. It wasn't as long or as powerful as her father's or her brother's, but it did reach her ankles in its relaxed state and could put a decent hole in the wall when she tried hard enough. She hoped that it would be enough to kill.

Karin stabbed her Kagune in the direction of the boy without looking back. She didn't have the heart to face him. She felt her Kagune stab the wall behind her and turned around. Karin was surprised to see her Kagune clean and the wall bare, with the boy nowhere to be seen.

"You aren't a very good hunter, are you? Even little kids know that you should check that the person you're hunting is someone you can take on."

Karin's eye's widened. Toshiro was standing up on the fire escape of a nearby building. The streetlight was close by and she could see his eyes.

His pair of black and red Kakugans.

"Well?" he asked, "Are you going to fight? You dragged me all the way out here, so if you want to try and cannibalize me you're welcome to try. However, I won't go easy on you." He unfurled his Ukaku Kagune, looking like an angel of death.

Karin was shaking. She could feel the moisture in her eyes, but she tried to force herself to calm down. She hadn't cried since her mother had died, and she wasn't going to start now in front of a hostile Ghoul. It really was just her luck, the one person she is able to get alone is another Ghoul.

Karin took a deep breath to calm herself down and hardened her gaze. "Look, I don't want to fight you, but I've got to get food for my family." She turned around and looked him straight in the eye. "If you do anything to stop me, I will defend myself."

Toshiro's eyes grew wide when Karin faced him. "One-eye?"

Karin quickly covered her right eye with her hand. That's right, because of her human mother she and her siblings only had one kakugan each. This was probably off-putting to most ghouls.

"Are you by any chance related to Ichigo Kurosaki?"

Karin gasped. "You know Ichi-nii?"

Toshiro put away his Kagune and jumped down from the fire escape. "Yeah. We've got a couple of mutual friends, and we're both connected to the Seireitei Coffee shop. Now that I think about it, don't you guys get your food from there? Why are you hunting at all?"

"Seireitei Coffee shop? Is that where Dad and Ichi-nii get the extra food from?" Karin asked. If it really was, then maybe...

Toshiro scowled. "You mean they never told you? Figures. Ichigo wouldn't even know himself if he hadn't met Rukia. I can understand not wanting you guys directly involved, but you need to at least know who to contact in case of emergencies..." Toshiro paused for a moment. "That's right, the moron went and got himself beat up by doves, didn't he? Guess that explains why you're so desperate."

Karin looked down at her feet. "Ichi-nii hasn't been able to get out of bed all day. We don't have any food left in the house, and since I didn't know what else to do..."

Toshiro sighed. "Well, you don't have to do that now. I'll introduce you to the guys in charge of the coffee shop, and they'll get you some food. Deal?"

Karin nodded. "Deal."

Toshiro started walking back down the alley. "Come on, we have to hurry if we want to get there before closing. By the way, I don't think I ever caught your name."

Karin ran to catch up with him. "It's Karin Kurosaki." She smiled at him. "Thanks for everything, Toshiro."

Toshiro shrugged. "It's no big deal. It's the shop's policy to help out their fellow ghouls anyway."

* * *

**I put a lot of thought into what kind of Kagunes the characters would have. Toshiro's was pretty obvious since he's a dragon, though I also considered how as a battle progresses, his Bankai looses power, similarly to how ukakus don't have that much stamina. Karin's was harder, since although I personaly imagine her powers as resembling a pheonix, whatever kagune she had would also have to work for Ichigo and her father. After checking through all the kagune types, I decided on bikaku, since it is the most well-rounded and they are apparently capable at being good at everything, which sounded the most like Ichigo.**

**Please Read, review, follow, and favorite!**


	2. Chapter 2: How Orihime Found Out

**Hey all! So, originally that Hitsukarin / Tokyo Ghoul AU was going to be a stand-alone one-shot, but a couple of people expressed some interest in it and I ended up thinking about it a lot. In the end, I realized that there were a lot of other stories that I could make in this universe and decided to expand on it. There will end up being a bunch of slightly interconnected on-shots based on this universe, and this is one of them. Please realize that updating this universe will be very sporadic and I don't even know more that just about 2 or 3 stories to do after this one, so you can't expect any kind of regular update schedule.**

**This story centers around a great friendship that I feel like doesn't get enough appreciation or even recognition in the Bleach fandom due to shipping wars: Rukia and Orihime. When I started thinking about expanding this universe, I realized how much their relationship is kind of like Touka's and Yoriko's, as well as some good ways to parallel certain canon events. As such, this one-shot was born!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own either Tokyo Ghoul or Bleach**

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"Rukia-chan! Say ah!"

Rukia resisted the urge to grimace as her best friend Orihime fed her some home-cooked food. It was a small bite, so it wasn't difficult for Rukia to swallow whole. She faked chewing about 10 times and put on a pleasant expression, just like she did every time she was required to consume human food.

"It's pretty good," Rukia lied. "Where'd you get the recipe?"

"I created it myself!" Orihime explained. "I marinated calamari in teriyaki sauce and coated it in wasabi before frying it like tempura." She pushed the bento toward Rukia. "Don't be afraid to take more! I brought enough to share with everyone, but Tatsuki and all the others said they're too full…"

_I guess it must sound gross to humans too,_ Rukia considered. _I suppose one more bite won't be too terrible…_ Rukia picked up her chopsticks and brought another piece of Orihime's concoction to her mouth.

Orihime sighed. "You're the only person who appreciates my cooking, Rukia."

_I wouldn't say that_, Rukia noted. _All human food tastes just as disgusting to me. I just have a lot of practice faking interest._

Rukia was saved from having to force down a third bite by the sudden appearance of a young man distracting Orihime. "Oh, Kurosaki-kun! You were able to make it to school today?"

Ichigo frowned. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be at school?"

Orihime fidgeted. "Uh, no reason. Forget I said that." She tried to hide her blush behind her loose hair.

Rukia felt a pang of regret when she realized why her friend was worried. Orihime had introduced her to Ichigo several months ago, and it didn't take long for Rukia to figure out what he was and vice versa. After establishing that neither one of them was interested in eating Orihime (or killing anyone for that matter,) Rukia brought him to her place of employment, Seireitei Coffee Shop. As he got to know the people there more, Ichigo ended up getting involved in doing favors for some of the ghouls in need, and sometimes that made him skip school to help someone escape the doves or recover from fighting Aogiri.

Orihime was a smart girl. Honestly, a little too smart. And she paid close attention to the people she cared about. She knew that something was up with Ichigo, she just didn't know what.

And she never could know. If she did find out, Rukia would have to kill her.

"Hey, have you heard any news about your brother?" Ichigo suddenly asked.

Rukia froze. That idiot! What is he thinking bringing that up?

Orihime shifted in her seat. "Uh, no I haven't. I'm sure the police are still looking for him, though."

Ichigo nodded. "He disappeared about 3 months ago, right?"

Orihime gave a small nod, avoiding looking in another direction.

Ichigo continued to pry. "And the path he was on, is there any chance it would have taken him past that construction project in the 20th ward?"

Orihime looked up, surprised by this question. "Um, I guess so. He was coming from around that area, so it's possible."

Rukia decided that he friend had suffered enough of Ichigo's unsympathetic questioning. "Hey Ichigo, you should try this!" she declared as she shoved down Ichigo's throat the biggest piece of Orihime's concoction she could find.

The look on Ichigo's face was priceless. Usually he was an expert at fake-eating human food, but he wasn't able to swallow immediately since it was someone other than himself putting the food in his mouth. As such, he had no choice but to revel in the disgusting taste as he chewed and swallowed the food not intended for his species.

After a few nervous seconds, Ichigo succeeded in swallowing the whole thing and glared at Rukia. "What was THAT for?"

"It's Orihime's home cooking." Rukia replied innocently. "What'd you think?"

"N…no. Don't worry about it Ichigo, I know it's horrible!" Orihime nervously assured him. She looked like she was about to cry from mortification.

Ichigo finally noticed Orihime's obvious emotional distress. "No, it's good. Rukia's serving techniques are just terrible," he explained.

_Oh Ichigo, you're just too tease. Still, what's up with these questions…_ Rukia wondered.

Casually, Rukia leaned forward and brushed the bottle of Soy Sauce, making it topple and spill all over Ichigo.

"What the… Gya!" Ichigo complained when he saw the mess.

"Oh no! I'm sorry Ichigo, I'm just so clumsy. Here, let's go get you cleaned up." Rukia dragged him away to the men's bathroom, ignoring all the weird looks she was getting.

"R-Rukia! This is the men's room! You can't be in here!" Ichigo protested.

"What were you thinking, asking Orihime about her brother? You know how hard it is for her!" Rukia asked, unaffected by Ichigo's exclamations.

"Look, I have a reason. Now would you please get out before somebody sees us and starts some kind of rumor?" Ichigo continued to protest.

As if to confirm his worries, Keigo walked and squeaked "S-sorry for interrupting!" and ran off.

Ichigo groaned. "Well, there goes my reputation."

"Boo-hoo. Now, what's the reason why you feel the need to traumatize our friend?" Rukia continued.

Ichigo sighed. "Sora isn't the only person who's gone missing in that area. As a matter of fact, enough people have disappeared that the police are starting to take notice. On top of that, there's a rumor going around that Aogiri is capturing live humans."

Rukia considered that. "Why would they want live humans? If they're making a point of keeping them alive, it probably isn't for regular food… Maybe to keep as pets or something like those weirdoes at the restaurant?"

Ichigo shrugged. "Beats me. However, we do know that they are being kept alive for some reason, we just don't know why. If Orihime's brother is one of the people they've captured…"

Rukia saw where he was going with this. "Do you want to mask up and look for him tonight?"

Ichigo shook his head. "I want to get a better idea of where he might be first. Keep your eye out for more information about this."

Rukia nodded. Orihime was her best friend, and she wanted to help her. Even though Orihime was a human and Rukia was a ghoul.

* * *

Orihime hummed a little tune as she walked to her apartment after school. It had been a pretty good day in her book. Rukia had enjoyed her cooking, and she had gotten back a perfect score on her math test. She even saw and spoke to Kurosaki-kun, which was always a plus.

Orihime placed her school bag beside the door and took off her shoes, placing it beside her brother's. She wandered into the living room, thinking about all the housework she had to start. It wasn't until she turned on the lamp beside her chair that she realized something was wrong.

Her brother had taken his shoes with him when he went missing.

Why then, were his shoes sitting by the door? They hadn't been there for the last two months.

Better yet, why was her brother sleeping in his chair like nothing was wrong?

Orihime couldn't believe her eyes. Her big brother, Sora, was sitting in his chair like nothing was wrong. Like he hadn't just been missing for two months. Like she hadn't been out of her mind with worry. Like it was any other day.

Orihime stretched out a hand toward Sora. "Big brother? Is that you?"

Sora fidgeted a little before softly opening his eyes. They were the same familiar grey color Orihime had known her entire life, but something still felt… off about them. "Orihime?" he whispered.

Tears were streaming down Orihime's face. It was her brother, he was back, he was safe. She ran into his arms and started crying into his shoulder like always used to whenever somebody teased her at school as a kid. As just like he used to do then, he wrapped his arms around her and breathed comforting words in her ear. They stayed like that for several minutes until Sora suddenly sniffed and froze, tightening his hold on Orihime until it was almost painful.

Orihime strugged, trying to get her brother to loosen his grasp. "Big brother? What's wrong?"

"I can smell others' scents on you." He whispered. "Others… who are like me."

His arms squeezed even tighter and Orihime gasped in pain. "Big brother, could you please let me go? I can't breathe."

Sora didn't listen to her. "They want you… because you're so beautiful. Because you're so innocent. Because your flesh would be so _tasty_." His body started shaking. "But I can't let them take you. You're my little sister, I've got to protect you. You're _mine_."

"You know, I thought about you the whole time I was gone?" Sora continued. "They tore me apart and stuck some new material inside me and completely rebuilt who I am, but they couldn't take away the thought of you. You gave me the strength to keep fighting, to keep resisting until I finally broke out and was able to come home, where you were, so I could protect you. But know I find out that there are others around you who want to hurt you, and I… I can't have that."

Orihime finally was able to wiggle out of her brother's arms. When she stepped back and looked at him, she noticed he had a creepy smile that scared her.

"Hey Orihime, I have an idea," Sora offered. "How about you and I become one body? That way we'll always be together and I'll be able to protect you. Nobody else will be able to hurt you."

Orihime looked at her brother, scared and unable to understand what he was saying. "Become… one body? Big brother, I don't understand what you're talking about."

Suddenly, Orihime was lying on the ground with Sora holding her down. She felt a little ache from where she had fallen on her bottom, but she was too terrified by her brother's grip on her wrists to worry about that.

"It's quite simple really. You don't even have to do anything Orihime." Sora continued.

"We'll become one body when I _eat you_."

Orihime looked in her brother's eyes. One was still the warm grey she remembered. It was the eye of the brother she loved.

However, the other one was black and red, with black veins extending into the rest of his face. This was the eye of a monster she didn't know.

Orihime screamed.

Sora quickly moved his right hand to cover her mouth. "Shhh," he whispered. "You don't want to attract the police. If they hear you, they'll kill me just for being a ghoul. Then you'll be all alone, and your brother's death would be all your fault. You wouldn't want that, would you?"

Orihime shook her head, her vision quickly becoming blurry due to the moisture in her eyes. Sora inched closer, his hot breath warming her neck as he leaned in to bite…

Crash!

"Ah, there you are, you one-eyed bastard. We've been looking all over for you."

Orihime felt the weight of her brother disappear and heard a slam against the opposite wall. Slowly, she sat up and saw two men she didn't recognize wearing masks. One had a fairly lithe build, not too tall and not too muscular, and was wearing a mask with blue stripes. He was leaning against the wall beside a broken window. The other was a large, muscly man wearing a white half-mask covering his jaw. He was holding Sora by the throat, cutting off his air supply.

"No…" Sora choked out. "I won't… go back there. I'm not… like you guys."

"Really?" The large brute laughed. "I could have sworn that you were so hungry that you were about to eat you own sister. And you're not like us? Hey, Ulquiorra," he addressed the smaller stranger, "what are our orders about this runaway punk again? Can I eat him?"

Orihime squeaked. They wanted to eat her brother? No, she couldn't allow that.

"We were ordered to bring him back, dead if we had to." The other stranger stated, his expression emotionless. "I suppose it wouldn't be to terrible if you took a couple of bites, but the surgeon will need his kakuhou, so you can't eat that Yammy."

Sora struggled against the larger man's grip. "You'll have to kill me… before I ever go back there. Don't you dare… involve my sister in this."

The enormous stranger – Yammy – shrugged. "Well, I guess if that's what you want," he remarked and plunged his hand into Sora's stomach.

Sora's eyes grew wide for a few moments before all the light in them faded. Orihime shrieked at the top of her lungs until the other stranger – Ulquiorra – muffled her with his hands.

Yammy pulled his hand out of Sora's body and licked the blood off, letting the corpse of Orihime's most precious person fall to the ground. "Hm… not bad, for ghoul meat," the monster noted. "I probably shouldn't eat any more, or I won't be able to stop myself."

Orihime was sobbing. Ulquiorra released her, and she crawled over the her brother's body and held him close, not caring that she was getting blood all over her uniform. He was limp and wasn't breathing, but she still couldn't stop herself from begging him to wake up, to not be dead, to come back to her.

"Hey Ulquiorra, what should we do about the girl?"

Orihime froze.

Ulquiorra sighed. "I suppose we could take her. The surgeon needs more expirements, after all. He had a lot of success with her brother, so there probably isn't that high of a chance of rejection."

Orihime could hear Yammy walking toward her. She was shaking. _Someone, please save me._

"What are you Aogiri bastards doing here? I thought we made it clear that this area is protected by the Seireitei."

Orihime turned to see where the new voice was coming from. Two figures were crouched on the window ledge, one a young man in black clothes and wearing a creepy white mask with read markings covering its left half. The other was a young woman wearing a beautiful white mask, covered in carved designs that made her look like it was made from ice. Something about both of them felt familiar.

Ulquiorra's eyes grew wide and he turned to his companion. "Yammy, get the artificial one-eye's body. We need to go."

Yammy looked confused. "Eh? Come on Ulquiorra, they're just two punks. We can beat them and get the girl."

Ulquiorra pointed at the man on the ledge. "That's the One-eyed Moon. We have standing orders to leave him alone and avoid confrontation. Apparently, the Tree has _plans_ for him." He said "plans" like it was something to be feared.

Yammy contemplated his partner's words for a while and shrugged. He grabbed Sora's corpse, not paying any attention to Orihime's whimpers as she had no choice but to let go.

Ulquiorra and Yammy left through the front door, as though they were just old friends who were done visiting. When the door closed with a soft "click," the two figures ran up to Orihime.

"Are you okay Orihime?" the young woman asked, reaching out a hand. Her voice sounded very familiar.

The young man snorted. "Of course she's not. She just watched her brother die right in front of her, didn't she?" His voice also sounded very familiar.

Orihime started sobbing uncontrollably. It was all just too much.

The young woman in the mask smacked her companion. "You idiot! You just made it worse."

Suddenly, Orihime realized where she had heard their voices before.

"Rukia? Is that you?"

Both of the masked individuals froze at Orihime's words. Eventually, the young woman knelled down in front of her and took of the mask, revealing the face of Rukia Kuchiki.

"I was hoping you wouldn't find out." Rukia whispered. She opened her eyes, revealing that they had the black-and-red coloring of a ghoul.

Orihime looked into her friend's eyes. They looked just like how one of her brother's had looked just before he tried to eat her. How it had looked just before Yammy had killed him. But right now, they were filled with nothing but compassion and friendship. They were they eyes of one of her best friends.

Suddenly, Orihime lunged at Rukia and pulled her into a hug. "I'm… so sorry Rukia!"

Ruka stiffened. "What… what are you apologizing for? You haven't done anything wrong!"

Still, Orihime continued to sob into Rukia's shoulder. She was mourning the loss of her brother, of her innocence, of all those happy days she had spent unaware of how horrible the world could be. And Rukia let her, like a good friend would.

* * *

**Yeah, so that was pretty angsty... I was listening to Running Up That Hill by Placebo on repeat when I was writing the second half, so that might be part of it...**

**I kind of want to explore the posibilities of Ulquihime and Ishidahime in this universe, building off the events of this. Those both had the potential for some real gut-wretching angst in this universe. **

**Please read, review, follow, and favorite!**


	3. Someone to Chase those Memories Away

**Hey! This is my contribution to Hitsukarin Week 2015 day 3. Since the prompt was crossover and I already had this universe in existence, I decided to expand on it rather than trying to come up with another Bleach AU. I originally was thinking of doing something cute with Toshiro and Karin going to school (I kinda touched on that at the end of this,) but then I thought "Hey! Isn't Toshiro a white-haired character? And in Tokyo Ghoul, white hair usually means one thing: pain. As a result, this happened.**

**This also allowed me to start interweaving my Bleach characters into the canon Tokyo Ghoul story-line. I included two Tokyo Ghoul characters in this, you should be able to spot them since I wasn't very subtle. I do have other plans to connect Bleach characters to Tokyo Ghoul, but some of them I want to wait for more information before I write about them.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Ghoul or Bleach**

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_"Shiro-chan, did you try running away again? You should know by now that Mama will always find you."_

_The little boy struggled against the shackles holding his wrists behind his back, attached to a dirty wall stained with blood. "That's not true! Momo-nee got away."_

_His companion, another young boy wearing a girl's dress, shook his head. "Mama didn't care about Momo-chan as much as us. Momo-chan was too old when Mama found her, and she isn't pretty like Mama, you, and me. Mama let Momo-chan go, but she won't do the same for us."_

_The constrained boy grit his teeth at the other. "Mama is ugly and blind! Momo-nee, Momo-nee is…" his voice broke into sobs. "Momo-nee, I miss you. Why did you leave me? Why didn't you take me with you? Didn't you promise to take care of me after Granny died? Didn't you say you'd protect me when Mama took us?"_

_The cross-dressing boy observed the other's breakdown with an impassive expression. When the sobs had changed into heavy breathing, he spoke. "You know, I'm really jealous of you Shiro-chan. You have someone other than Mama."_

"Shiro-chan? Shiro-chan, are you even listening to me?"

Toshiro pushed the unpleasant memories out of his mind to glare at his older sister. "Momo-nee, I told you not to call me that anymore. I'm not a little kid anymore." He grabbed an empty coffee cup and started making the next order.

Momo pursed her lips. "I've known you almost your entire life, Toshiro. You'll always be Shiro-chan to me"

Toshiro didn't reply. He just couldn't tell her. He had deliberately kept her in the dark about just how cruel Mama could be, and never had the heart to tell her how after she left he had become "Mama's little Shiro-chan" alongside Rei-chan. He just couldn't burden (or was it trust?) Momo-nee with that kind of information.

Toshiro continued making coffee for a while, ignoring Momo's attempts to engage him in conversation. For some reason, he didn't have any patience for her today. It wasn't clear to Toshiro whether it was because of normal teenage angst, his recent flashback, or something else. Whatever it was, Toshiro had to fight against the urge throw the kettle of boiling water at the girl every time she called him that childish nickname.

"Shiro-chan, can you make a large cappuccino?"

Bang!

Toshiro set the coffee pot back in its place a little more forcefully than necessary. "Stop calling me that," he demanded, his voiced a tad louder than was acceptable for polite conversation.

A hand grabbed Toshiro's shoulder, making him freeze. He turned around and saw a familiar, kind face.

"Toshiro-kun, how about you take a break?" Ukitake asked him with an understanding smile. He slipped a brown paper bag into the youth's hands. "I brought some of those sweets you like. Why don't you go to the staff room and enjoy them?"

Toshiro took a deep breath to calm himself and nodded. Ukitake was probably the closest person to Toshiro at the Seireitei Coffee Shop other than Momo. Somehow, the older man was able to realize exactly what Toshiro needed even then the youth didn't know himself. So, when Ukitake told Toshiro to take a break, it would be a good idea to do what he said. With this in mind, Toshiro clutched the brown paper bag and made his way to the staff room upstairs.

Once he closed the door behind him, Toshiro released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Working was always hard (well, that's why it's called work,) but for Toshiro it was especially difficult because he didn't have much experience pretending to be human.

Toshiro's and Momo's parents had been killed by doves when he was still a baby. They lived with their grandmother for most of Toshiro's childhood. Because she was old and frail and couldn't fight off the doves anymore, their Granny didn't let them get involved in the human world and homeschooled them. When Toshiro was ten, their Granny died while gathering food. This left the siblings alone and forced to fend for themselves. They took to the street and probably would have been fine if it weren't for the sudden appearance of Mama…

_"Oh, this is wonderful!" An obese, disgusting woman clapped her chubby hands and laughed, "Such a rare, legendary kagune! I hope you realize how precious you are, my little Hitsugaya-chan…"_

_"Uh, my name is Hinamori… Granny says Mommy's name used to be Hitsugaya, but she changed it to dad's when she married him," The young man corrected, confused by the woman's elated words._

_The woman leaned down to meet his eyes with a disconcerting, toothy grin. "That's all details, Hitsugaya-chan. You inherited you're mother's kagune, and that's the part that makes you so valuable. That cute face of yours is just an added bonus." She roughly pinched his cheeks, making the boy grimace. "And you're all mine, Shiro-chan." _

Toshiro plopped down on the sofa and opened the paper bag. It was filled with light brown sugar cubes. At least, to the casual observer they would look like sugar cubes. In reality there wasn't any sugar in them. Toshiro didn't know what the exact ingredients were, but Ukitake made them for some of the ghoul customers and employees. It was intended to be dissolved in coffee to help take the edge off a ghoul's hunger, but Toshiro had discovered that they were really tasty by themselves. The first time the others caught Toshiro eating them like this, he had been terrified that they would punish him or something. But Ukitake had just laughed and started make some extras to give to Toshiro whenever they saw each other.

Toshiro plopped one of the sweets in his mouth. The texture was rough against his tongue a second before it dissolved and covered his entire mouth in a saccharine syrup. He swallowed, relishing in both the taste and the small ebb in his hunger. Toshiro wasn't particularly hungry, but considering the fact that he'd experienced true starvation, he didn't want go without food more than he had to.

_His stomach was growling. The sense of hunger originally came in waves: it would be intolerable for about an hour, then it would simmer down to a dull ache for a while. Now that it had been nearly an entire month since the last time he had gnawed on the scraps Mama left him, the sense of emptiness and the urge to kill and consume anything was constant and ever-growing. He rubbed his wrists against the metal entrapping them, drawing crimson liquid from barely-healed wounds. Toshiro wished that he could maneuver his hands to lap up his own blood._

_The door opened, and the most alluring scent Toshiro had ever sensed filled the room. The familiar face of his only friend in this hell became visible. "How ya doing, Shiro-chan?"_

_Toshiro felt saliva accumulate around his teeth and overflow through the edge of his lips. "Rei, you shouldn't come near me right now…"_

_Rei just skipped over to Toshiro, seemingly unaware of how delectable he smelled. "Mama sent me to get you out of here! Isn't that great?"_

_The human boy started to reach around his ghoul companion, probably to get to the locks, and the flesh of his arm was barely an inch away…_

_Sweet, sweet, sweet blood exploded in Toshiro's mouth. He couldn't remember actually taking a bite, but once he realized that his teeth were buried in Rei's arm, tears cascaded from his eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" he mumbled around Rei's flesh._

_The human boy, however, just looked down at the ghoul with a tinge of amusement. "Wow, you must be really hungry, huh?"_

Toshiro bit into another candy defiantly.

After a couple of minutes had passed and about a quarter of the bag had disappeared into Toshiro's stomach, someone barged through the door.

"Oh, sorry Toshiro. I didn't know you were there."

Toshiro looked over at the intruder. "Oh, it's just you Karin. Waiting for your brother again?"

Karin had recently become a constant, though not unwelcome, presence in the Seireitei Coffee Shop. Her brother had recently started getting more involved in the Seireitei's "ghoul organization" side, and started going out with Renji and Rukia to scope out threats like Aogiri, keep tabs on troublesome ghouls in the area, gather food, and figure out where the doves were going to hit so they could be prepared. Since Ichigo was always gone on these missions, Karin had taken to hanging around the Coffee Shop so she could get updated immediately if anything were to happen. For the past couple of months she had been coming over after school and working on homework either at one of the tables or in the staff room, depending on how busy they were. Today was one of the busy days.

Karin sat down on the chair across from Toshiro. "You don't mind if I sit here do you? I've got two pages of math homework to do, a history paper to write, and a book to read for my literature class."

Toshiro shrugged. It didn't really affect him much if she was just going to do her work quietly. He would still be mostly alone with his thoughts. He popped another cube in his mouth.

Karin pulled the materials she needed out of her bag: two heavy textbooks, a smaller novel with a bookmark about halfway through it, a used notebook, and a pencil. She placed the one of the textbooks off to the side with the novel on top of it. She opened the other one and started doing problems in the notebook.

Toshiro observed her out of the corner of his eye. She was working intently, her black hair falling forward and obstructing his view of her face. Periodically she'd look over to the open textbook or brush her hair back to check her writing. Toshiro was enthralled by her human mannerisms, which she retained even though she wasn't in public. Maybe it had to do with her half-human nature. Toshiro envied her. It must be nice to not have to constantly work to put on the act of "being human." He would have liked to go to school and make new friends outside of Seireitei, but since it was so difficult to even maintain the persona to work at the coffee shop he couldn't.

"Hey, what are you eating?"

Toshiro glared at Karin for interrupting his thoughts. "A sweet Ukitake makes. Usually ghoul customers put it in their coffee to get the edge off their hunger, but I like to eat them just like this."

"Cool! Can I try them?"

Toshrio sighed, "I guess," and handed over the bag.

Karin picked out one of the sweet cubes and placed it on her tongue. He face shifted into an expression of bliss for a few moments as she savored in the sweet. As soon as it had dissolved, Karin turned back to her work.

"Grrr, this doesn't make any sense!"

"What's the issue?" Toshiro asked.

She turned her textbook to show him what she was working on. "This calculation involves plugging in some really complicated numbers, and even includes taking the square root of a negative number. That's not even possible!"

Toshiro looked over the problem carefully and checked her work. He didn't understand anything about the theory and was about to had it back to her without a comment, but he noticed a certain place she made a mistake. "How did you get 12 plus negative 3 to equal 7?"

Karin blinked. "What?"

Toshiro pointed to the place she made the mistake. "Your addition is wrong here."

Karin grabbed her notebook and looked it over. "You're right! I can't believe I made such a stupid mistake. Thanks, Toshiro!"

She quickly made the correction and went back to work. Toshiro smirked and leaned back in his seat. It felt nice to be able to help her. Toshiro liked to think that he was pretty smart, but his lack of formal education put him at a disadvantage. He recalled how he wasn't able to figure out what the theory behind her work and felt a pang of regret.

"Toshiro, have you ever considered going to school?"

The white-haired boy was startled by the sudden question. "Um, I can't." He shifted in his seat, unhappy that she had asked such an uncomfortable question.

She blinked. "Really? I think you'd do well, since you're so smart."

Toshiro cleared his throat, embarrassed. "I'd stick out too much," he hastily explained. "You know, because of my hair." _And my inability to act human._

Karin frowned. "Have you seen my brother's hair?"

That's right, Ichigo's orange hair also stood out. Damn it, she was seeing through his false excuse.

Karin sighed. "Well, do you want to? Go to school, I mean."

Toshiro winced. "I already told you, I can't."

"That's not what I asked."

Toshiro sighed. _Well? Do I? If I was somehow able to act like a human better, would I want to go to school with a bunch of humans? Would I like to learn? Would I like to make friends?_

"Yes," he replied.

Karin nodded. "You know, I've got a bunch of my old workbooks at home. I could bring them to teach you the same kind of stuff I'm learning in school." She smiled. "Only if you want to, of course."

Toshiro gasped. She would do that for him? "I'd… I'd really like that." He mumbled, embarrassed to admit how much it meant to him.

"Really? Well, in that case…" Karin had a devious look in her eyes as she moved to sit next to Toshiro on the sofa. "Why don't we start now? Karin-sensei thinks we should start with math. What do you know about quadratic equations?"

Toshiro groaned. "I'm not calling you sensei, Karin. And don't you need to work on your homework?"

"I can do it later tonight. Now, about factoring…"

Karin taught Toshiro various subjects in math. Toshiro picked it up quickly, and eventually Karin decided that she had gotten him as far as she could without her extra workbooks and decided to switch to history. She summarized the events of each chapter in her textbook and helped him through some practice problems. They passed the bag of sweet cubes between them until there was only one left for them to fight over (Karin got it.) Neither one of them realized how much time had passed as the daylight disappeared outside the window.

Eventually a knock came at the door.

"Karin, I'm back," Ichigo announced through the door. "We should leave if we want to be home in time for dinner."

"Coming!" Karin replied as she packed up her stuff. "Sorry I wasn't able to teach you more Toshiro. I promise to bring more schoolbooks tomorrow."

"It's alright." Toshiro affirmed. "I really enjoyed learning what I could."

Karin smiled at him. "I'm glad." She ran out the door to greet her brother. "See ya, Toshiro!"

Toshiro waved goodbye to the girl and her brother. Ukitake came up beside him and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Are you feeling better, Toshiro? I noticed that something has been bothering you all day," The older man explained.

Toshiro considered Ukitake's comment. He had been feeling cranky all day. He didn't like being called Shiro-chan anytime, but he never snapped at her like he had earlier. When he thought about it more thoroughly he realized what the reason was.

"I'm sorry for being so angry earlier Ukitake. I was just remembering some unpleasant memories earlier. But it's alright, I stopped thinking about them when I was with Karin."

* * *

**Before anyone asks, no, she didn't do _that_ to Toshiro. The -chan suffix, although mirroring Rei, is indicating how child-like he looks, not missgendering him. I'm not that cruel. **

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